SSF should be different, not punishing

TLDR: SSF forces new decisions that are interesting and different from those in softcore. But SSF is balanced around the presence of trade (because same balance as trade league), making it much more punishing than trade league, turning away many (especially casual) players. The absence of trade should be compensated for to create a different experience of equal difficulty.

SSF is different from normal softcore.
SSF is a completely different experience from trade. In SSF, you are forced to interact with many different aspects of the game. If you want oils, best do some blight maps.
Because almost every content has their own use, almost everything becomes valuable. And so, instead of picking one piece of content, running it efficiently, selling the farmed materials and not looking at anything else, you’ll need to experience everything.
As someone who has played a lot of softcore, farmed the same optimal strategy for hours because it’s more efficient to sell things than to engage with different content, SSF represents an opportunity to force myself to learn and experience other things.
Also, for someone like me who worries endlessly about the opportunity cost of doing any content, it would feel very liberating to, say, do my own UBER bosses or use my own essences without wondering whether selling them would have been more worth it. For players whose anxiety makes them not want to gamble, this is a perfect way to overcome it.


SSF is more difficult than normal softcore
POE is balanced around the presence of trade - this is something Chris Wilson has spoken about a few times on Baeclast. Whether something can be traded, or how easily it can be traded, affects how powerful or rare GGG can make it.
SSF was an additional challenge mode. Players had to make do only with what they dropped. This makes the game incredibly more difficult. Although some players may appreciate the difficulty, many won’t because many don’t have the time to beat Maven in a league with trade, much less in a league without trade.


There should be an SSF mode that is different without being more difficult
POE could benefit from more game modes that spice up the gameplay and the ways players interact with it. SSF presents a perfect side of the game that forces the player to interact with it differently.
But it is gated behind its difficulty. While I would love to farm everything on my own, I also think I would be miserable when progress is so gutted - because the game is balanced around the presence of trade.
I think SSF could be improved by compensating, in some way, for the lack of trade. Now, I understand that if people think that SSF loot is better than normal loot, it might drive more players to SSF. I don’t want to make SSF the better mode, or easier than trade - but I think there is a balance, just to make it slightly less punishing. If the presence of trade makes the game 10x easier, give a 3x multiplier to player loot in SSF (numbers just used for illustration). You could have multiple SSF modes - one ‘SSF for casuals’ and one ‘true SSF’.

SSF is a perfect way to let players experience getting slightly rarer items/more currency without affecting the POE economy.

you are totally forgotting that you can move your currencies into trade

or even into STD (from HCSSF)

this will totally fuck up everything if in SSF it's 3x easier to get everything

Agreed, but this to me is just a simple fix of - don't let people in this SSF mode transfer.

ssf cannot be different from 'normal' trade league, as long as there is the option to migrate into the normal league.


IF ssf were *FOREVER*, then they could consider adjustments. but that just makes another headache of maintaining multiple modes. as is, ssf takes no additional dev time. it gets no special treatment.

if you make ssf forever, then you get a slew of balance "suggestions" for it. and the people that like the *CURRENT* challenge, now feel it becomes too easy, and you have to make a "SSF HARDMODE" and etc etc etc.

leave ssf alone. play trade league and just dont trade often.



Context : I played SSF for most of metamorph league. It was the first league i ever found a mirror shard AND a 'the fiend'. I killed sirus A8. I crafted

in ssf. Including farming the fuses to 6link it. 'Dizzy_Thokk' migrated to trade league after i got 32 or 34 challenges, because i didnt want to bother farming 36 myself. Infact, the only piece of gear he's wearing that ISNT from ssf metamorph league, is the chest. i ended that league wearing a 5link belly, which i moved when league ended and wanted to derp around spinning.

SSF is, imo, FINE. it takes a bigger time investment, but it does not need to be messed with.

I'm not opposed to an easier SSF mode for players who want the difficulty of no trade but with the benefit of a loot compensation; however, is GGG willing to go out of their way to make this game mode?

Like you said, if they did make this game mode; then, it'd be completely locked out of migrations.

Personally, another game mode to make more gamers happy is perfectly okay to me.

I will say this though, if you completely ignore new leagues and only stay in standard SSF and just go at your own pace; you'd be surprised at how far you'd get with permanent progress.

Anyway, I hope GGG will set aside some time to create a game mode for you and others who want it, may an easier SSF mode be in your future ;).

Sure i just wanna play the game solo withot forced Meta/starter build, or commuting a month of time grinding. I don't care about MP or items moving between leagues. Real solo mode plz.

GGG didn't really want to make the current version of SSF, but caved to the pressure of the community. What did the community want? Well, they wanted what we have now; a separate ladder for SSF players, where they could compete and compare themselves with other players, without the possibility of cheating.

The chances of GGG adding yet another separate game mode for yet another part of the community, adding yet another separation in the player base is almost 0%.

I guess it's more about experiencing the whole game than anything else.

I would love to create an item with a 1/5 fracture harvest gamble.
I'd love to feel a little thrill of exalt slamming a few items.
I'd love to see a +1 frenzy charge implicit item drop from synthesis and feel like I farmed it myself.

But I will never. Because GGG can't afford for these items to be common or else the economy would be screwed.

Let players experience that thrill without feeling like they're gambling away 100 hours of their time per attempt - feeling like it would be much better to sell.

A balanced SSF would remove economy worries and also NATURALLY would suggest more loot due to lack of trade.

There are so many parts of the game that a casual player will never experience. It's too large for it. I think a casual SSF mode where the game's just a bit easier, catering to some players, would be just as healthy for the game as any 'hardmode' where the game is a bit harder, catering to other players.

I understand that you want to experience the whole game but, you're gonna be in for a lot of disappointment on your attempts at harvest fracturing before a success unless you're insanely lucky.

Additionally, you absolutely can feel the thrill of exalt slamming with Leo slams for Jun missions only. T3 Leo is a free exalt slam without killing Catarina and a T4 Leo is two free exalt slams. They also made Non-influence Augment Exalts a lot more common in Harvest.

Also, you can create amazing influenced items you can Leo Slam on either single influenced items which you can change which conqueror with harvest, or you can get two guaranteed modifiers on an item with an Awakener's orb.

You don't have to chase after end game items to create really good items that help you in the meantime. I understand that you don't want to drop a bonkers amount of hours on PoE, but I need you to understand, you can definitely progress in regular standard SSF, and it's very rewarding, and you shouldn't underestimate how far you can get or what you can create in there.

Leo Slams are not hard to get.
Conquerors are not out of reach.
Sirus, Maven, Elder, Shaper etc are all within your reach to get Maven / Awakener's Orbs or Watcher's Eyes.

Permanent progress is permanent.

no

GGG does not want players to play SSF.
The main game is balanced around having people trade with eachothers, but many players (including me) prefered playing alone, and GGG implemented SSF leagues so that we would feel better about playing solo, but still trying to push us to play trade leagues with the migration option.


GGG does not want to give any incentive to people to play SSF rather than trade league.
Asking GGG to make SSF easier without the migrating option is misunderstanding what SSF leagues are.


If you want to do high end crafting, you are supposed to do what other players have been doing to get there : trade.